Sunday, September 14, 2008

Running Dogwalk Practice

A busy weekend but I finally managed to set up the video camera to get some running dogwalk footage. This is Strummer's second attempt at the 16" table height. He was at nearly 100% at the 12" height before I moved him up to 16". His first attempt at 16" was abysmal, I didn't track the success rate but I'd guess maybe 30% or so. He's up to 56% on his second attempt and most of his misses were at the start of the session so I think he's getting the feel for the steeper board. I'm standing still for most reps, I want the dogwalk to be independent of my motion but I ran with him for a few reps towards the end because I don't want my motion to be a distraction. He sped up for the reps where I ran with him. I'm not sure how realistic it will be to expect him to totally ignore my motion. I'm also wondering if I'm being too strict in my criteria which is a front foot hitting in the bottom 2/3 of the contact and no jumping. He's only jumping on the first couple of reps and there are several where he's not jumping but he misses the yellow with his front feet but makes it with his rear. I didn't count those as hits but I wonder. For now I'll stick with the stricter criteria and see if he can do it. I'd like to see him extending more and hitting the board only twice with his front feet because I think that's what it will look like on the real dogwalk. I think once the angle gets steeper he'll have no choice. For now the important thing is that he's learning to adjust his stride, not how many strides he's taking.

Here's some video. For every rep I included a slow motion version, not sure if this is helpful or tedious to the masses but it's helpful to me. Not sure if the internet needs another video of a dog running across a plank but oh well.